Carrefour Acquires B2E Lunch Delivery Company
International food retailer the Carrefour Group has acquired Dejbox, a pioneer in lunch delivery for business employees in suburban and outlying areas.
The move enables Carrefour to expand its e-grocery offerings to encompass both a new product segment (ready-to-eat meals) and a new customer base (the business-to-employee market, or B2E), in furtherance of its goal to provide everyday meals at affordable prices.
Founded in 2015, Dejbox is an online canteen for business employees who can choose from a wide range of fresh, cooked and seasonal lunch dishes for the cost of a restaurant voucher and have it delivered to their workplace at no charge. To capture this market, Dejbox developed an intuitive online and mobile user interface as well as top-quality, inexpensive menu offerings and a streamlined logistics operation. With operations in Lille, Lyon, Paris, Bordeaux, Nantes and Grenoble, France, as well as hundreds more towns and cities in those metropolitan areas, Dejbox delivers more than 400,000 meals monthly.
The company also directly employs more than 300 workers, including 140 food preparers and delivery personnel — a feature that differentiates it from other meal delivery platforms that rely heavily on gig-economy workers.
As part of the Carrefour Group, Dejbox will be able to grow its French operations rapidly and also quickly move into international markets. Additionally, Dejbox plans to ramp up its B2B services, which will allow companies to assume part of the cost of employee lunches by transferring funds virtually to each employee’s online Dejbox account.
Using a system of smart delivery routes and a unique network of partner caterers and merchants from local communities, Dejbox has created a business model that Carrefour believes is well suited to recent food delivery trends, especially among Millennials.
“This acquisition, which reflects Carrefour’s desire to become the leader in grocery e-commerce, is a strategic one,” said Amélie Oudéa-Castera, executive director customers, services and digital transformation at Boulogne-Billancourt, France-based Carrefour, which has a multiformat network of more than 12,000 stores in 30-plus countries. “It will give us the opportunity to expand our customer base to include employees of medium-sized, small and micro businesses and also invest in the fast-growing food delivery segment with an offering rooted in quality and affordability.”
Added Dejbox co-founders Adrien Verhack and Vincent Dupied, “We made the strategic decision to join with Carrefour because we firmly believe it’s the best possible partner for helping us achieve our ambitious growth plans for Dejbox and for offering as many people as possible an online, affordable, sustainable and tasty alternative to a sandwich or a home-cooked meal.”
